''Finger Prints'' is a book published by

Francis Galton Sir Francis Galton, FRS FRAI (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911), was an English Victorian era polymath: a statistician, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto- ...

through

Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...

in 1892. It was one of the first books to provide a scientific footing for matching

fingerprint A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...

s and for later acceptance in courts. He collected information from a number of people and recorded their backgrounds, financial situations, likes and dislikes, health, etc. on a large scale. By that time, it was known that the fingerprints of different people were different. He collected fingerprints of a large number of people and invented a method of their classification. Using statistical methods he showed that the possibility of fingerprints of two different people being identical is nearly zero. This result made it possible to identify a person from his fingerprints. This method of identifying criminals was accepted in the judiciary.

External links

The text and high resolution scans of this book
Fingerprints 1892 non-fiction books Works by Francis Galton {{science-book-stub